Africa Netball Associations Championships (Malawi)
Final:
South Africa Proteas 54-52 Malawi Queens
Uganda Netball team, The She Cranes will return home with their hands high up following the news that the team qualified to the Glasgow 2014 Common Wealth games. The She Cranes lost out to the eventual winners, The South African Proteas 46-55 in the semifinals on Friday morning.
South Africa dethroned hosts, Malawi in a 56-54 pulsating and thrilling final held at the Blantyre Youth Centre on Friday evening. As the South Africans celebrated, they dedicated the sweet victory to Nelson Madida Mandela, the ailing former Pan-African leader.
“The final was very physical, tense and closely contested. Dethroning the reigning champion is no mean feat, i congratulate the team and we dedicate this Victory to the grandfather of our nation, Nelson Mandela”, said coach Eliza Klotze after the game.
The 5 day long games that attracted 15 African nations were closed by Malawi’s Minister of Youth and Sports Enock Chihana. They also doubled as Africa’s qualifiers to the 2014 common wealth games that will be held in Scotland.
Scotland, Glasgow will host the 2014 Common Wealth games edition while the Gold Coast City of Australia will host the 2018 version at the Carrara main Stadium. South Africa, runners up Malawi, Uganda and Zambia will represent Africa in the games that started way back in 1930.
Team Uganda’s Peace “Warid Tower” Proscovia was named the best shooter while the Malawian duo of Caroline ‘Ayuda’ Ngwira and Tina Kanzati took the best defender and Centre player accolades respectively.
The She Cranes have already embarked on the return journey of over 1765 km back to Uganda. They will transverse through Tanzania and Kenya for 4 days, and are expected in Kampala in the early hours of Tuesday morning.